Land charges search

Search of official records for information such as registerable charges, improvement grants, tree preservation orders, road schemes, planning history etc.on a plot of land.

The Local Land Charges (Amendment) Rules 2010

The Council does not charge a £22 Personal Search fee for those searches undertaken by personal search companies. However, if you require the Council to undertake the search on your behalf, then a fee of £22 applies.

To carry out a Personal Search of the Local Land Charges Register, please call the Local Land Charges Unit at Ryedale House: 01653 600666 to make an appointment. Please note: we require at least six working days notice.

To submit a search enquiry, the request form (PDF, 3 pages, 28kb) should be completed and sent with a Site Location Plan for every search submitted to the Land Charge Department. The response to the enquiry will be sent out within 20 working days.

If the property or land falls within North York Moors National Park, the planning questions can be requested at or telephone 01439 770657, or from Ryedale District Council Land Charges but only by a tailored report.

Highway questions should be forwarded to North Yorkshire County Council Highways. Please contact them on 01609 780780.

The Register of Local Land Charges contains details of all local land charges registered against a property. The Register consists of matters of outstanding liability for road and other financial charges, home improvement grants, tree preservation orders and other notices of restriction or prohibition on a parcel of land, either to secure the payment of a sum of money or to limit the use of the said property. It is a statutory requirement that all Local Authorities within England and Wales compile, maintain and regularly update their Local Land Charges Register.

Charges securing the payment of money that arise under the Public Health Acts, Building Act or similar statutes and any financial charge acquired by a local or water authority or sewerage undertaker. It is expressly provided that any sum recoverable by a local authority from successive owners or occupiers of the land in respect of which the sum is recoverable is a Local Land Charge.

A prohibition or restriction on the use of land imposed by a local authority or a Minster of the Crown or government department binding on successive owners of the land is a Local Land Charge.

Any positive obligation affecting land enforceable by a Minister of the Crown, government department or local authority under a covenant or agreement made after 1 August 1977 and binding on successive owners of the land is a Local Land Charge.

Any charge or matter expressly made a local land charge by a statutory provision.

This is a summary of the services available through the Local Land Charges Section in the provision of property search related information following the introduction of revised Form CON29R & O.

A Local Land Charges search is required to ensure that a purchaser of land is not caught out by the existence of obligations or 'charges', enforceable against successive owners by local authorities, or central government.

The word 'charge' is not defined by statute, but is used to describe a burden imposed on land, the most important factor being that the charge must be binding on successive owners or occupiers of land and/or property. The charges detailed on the Local Land Charges Register would not normally be disclosed by a perusal of the title deeds or indeed by an inspection of the land or property itself.

The Local Land Charges Register consists of twelve parts. The following are examples of the types of information or 'charges' that might be found on the Local Land Charges Register:

Financial Charges - amounts of money that are due to the Local Authority. Usually these amounts have been incurred as a result of works carried out by the Council in default.

Conservation Areas - designated by the authority as areas containing special architectural or historic interest. As it is desirable to preserve or enhance these areas this designation gives additional controls over new buildings or demolition works. The Conservation Area designation also helps to protect trees and hedgerows. Before carrying out any works to trees and hedgerows within a Conservation Area, contact the Planning Office for advice.

These are the 12 parts of the Land Charges Register:Part 1: General financial charges

Part 2: Specific financial charges

Part 3: Planning Charges

Part 4: Miscellaneous charges

Part 5: Fenland ways maintenance charges

Part 6: Land compensation charges

Part 7: New towns charges

Part 8: Civil aviation charges

Part 9: Opencast coal charges

Part 10: Listed buildings charges

Part 11: Light obstruction notices

Part 12: Drainage scheme charges

In addition to the registered items revealed on the Local Land Charges Register a potential purchaser will also wish to be made aware of any notices about to be served on the property that will become binding upon any new purchaser upon completion. To cover these important but non-registered items the questionnaire form CON29R is available.

LLC1This consists of entries in the Local Land Charges Register only and is submitted on form LLC1. It does not provide any of the valuable information that is supplied in response to a Full Search. Form LLC1 is an Official request, submitted in duplicate by a Legal Practitioner or a member of the public to the appropriate Local Authority asking for a search of the Local Land Charges Register to be conducted. The Local Authority is under a statutory duty to comply with that request.

Full SearchThis type of search provides the most comprehensive information. Most LLC1 submissions are accompanied by a questionnaire called the CON29R (2007 Edition). The information required to answer questions on form CON29O, come direct from various council units. The CON29 form contains standard questions and additional part 2 enquiries (for which additional fees are payable). The CON29R & O forms should be supplied in duplicate, together with 2 copies of a plan showing the location of the target property.

Many of the questions contained on the CON29R form are considered to be 'warning' questions. Some of the information given may, at the end of the process, end up on the Local Land Charges Register. However, all the information given will assist a purchaser in deciding whether to proceed with the proposed purchase.

It is in reply to an Official CON29R submission that proposed road schemes within a certain distance of land or property will be revealed. Only by submitting an official CON29R form can you find out about any formal or informal notices affecting a specific property. These notices could eventually lead to formal prosecutions taking place. Only an official CON29R will advise you of any proposed enforcement action, planning contravention or breach of condition notices.

Much of the information given by the local authority in reply to the CON29R form cannot be obtained from any other source. The majority of the information is not available to a personal searcher. As previously stated, in addition to the standard CON29R questions there are optional enquiries that may be asked depending on the type and location of the land or property. An additional fee is payable per additional enquiry. Whenever a property or parcel of land is being purchased we strongly advise that an Official LLC1 and CON29R be submitted to the relevant Local Authority.

Form LLC1 is an Official request, submitted in duplicate by a Legal Practitioner or a member of the public to the appropriate Local Authority asking for a search of the Local Land Charges Register to be conducted. The Local Authority is under a statutory duty to comply with that request. However, the CON29R form is a contractual document, by accepting the fee the Local Authority agrees to answer some or all of the questions contained on the form. The CON29R form contains a set of standard questions plus a series of additional questions that may be asked if they are considered to be relevant to a transaction. The fee for the CON29R is not statutory and is therefore set by each individual authority.

Personal SearchAny person may make a personal search on payment of the prescribed fee in any or all parts of the Local Land Charges Register. In certain cases he may have to consult other public records maintained by the authority. It must be stressed that a personal search is only of the Local Land Charges Register and once the register has been inspected, the personal search has been conducted. The standard and additional parcel fee for a personal search is statutory and regulated by the Lord Chancellor's Office.

Although certain registers are open for public inspection, it does not mean staff within units who hold public records are under a legal obligation to supply supplementary or additional advice.

To carry out a Personal Search of the Local Land Charges Register, please call the Local Land Charges Unit at Ryedale House: 01653 600666 to make an appointment. Please note: we require at least six working days notice.

Customarily a conveyancer carries out the official search on behalf of their client. The conveyancer would also make the supplementary enquiries before entering into the contract to purchase the property.

Personal Search Agents, on behalf of conveyancers, carry out personal searches. A Personal Search is a search of the Local Land Charges Register and other statutory registers held by the council that are open for public inspection during office hours. A Personal Search allows access to limited property information and is not as comprehensive as the local authority search. There are no standard forms required in order to carry out a Personal Search and it is your responsibility to obtain information relating to the property being searched from council records. Details of the records available for inspection can be obtained from the local land charges department.

A separate requisition for search should be made in respect of each parcel of land in respect of which a search is required. Except where, for the purpose of a single transaction, a certificate is required in respect of two or more parcels of land that have a common boundary or are separated only by a road, railway, river, stream or canal. In which case all the property addresses can by included in the one transaction.

The fee is then calculated at a standard search fee for the first property and a reduction called the additional parcel fee for the second property and so on.

An additional parcel means land (including a building or part of a building), which is separately occupied or separately rated or, if not occupied or rated, is in separate ownership. For the purpose of this definition an owner is the person who (in his own right or as trustee for any other person) is entitled to receive the rack rent of land. Or, where the land is not let at a rack rent, would be so entitled if it were so let.

Common land is land, usually in private ownership that has Rights of Common over it. The main features of common land are that it is generally open, unfenced and remote - particularly in the upland areas of England and Wales. However, there are some lowland areas of common, particularly in the Southeast of England, that are important for recreational uses. Currently, the general public has no rights to go onto common land unless the land is an urban common, or is crossed by public rights of way (and they follow the line of the right of way). However, the government's proposals (in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000) to permit public access to open countryside in the future will also include access to common land. Rights of common can include:

Grazing sheep or cattle (herbage)

Taking peat or turf (turbary)

Taking wood, gorse or furze (estovers)

Taking of fish (piscary)

Eating of acorns or beechmast by pigs (pannage)

The people who are able to exercise the rights listed above are generally known as 'commoners'. Common land and rights are a very ancient institution - even older than Parliament itself. They are part of the fabric of life in England and Wales and have their origins in the manorial system.

The one and a half million acres of common land in England and Wales are the most underrated and misunderstood - though not unappreciated - part of the countryside. This may be in part a matter of semantics. Nine of out ten people if asked who owns common land will reply the Queen, no one or everyone. As for the great majority of commons they would be wrong. All common land has an owner. The ambiguous term 'common' refers to the rights held in common by certain people to use the product of the soil of the common, by grazing, cutting turf and so on. Yet commons may be said to belong to the people as commoners have an economic interest in the land. They have probably always used commons like village greens, for their festivals and holiday activities, a use which has gradually extended to the wider public and is today of considerable importance.

Under the Commons Registration Act, 1965, the North Yorkshire County Council is a Registration Authority and holds the Register of Common Land and Village Greens for the district of Ryedale.

The register is a statutory document and can be inspected by anyone by appointment and free of charge. The register shows all land and property registered as common land or village green land in the Ryedale area.

Each area of common land or town or village green is listed in the register under a unique 'Unit Number'. Each unit number in the register is divided in three sections showing details of:

Land - This includes a description of the land, who registered it and when the registration became finally registered. There are also related plans, which show the boundaries of the land.

Rights - This includes a description of the rights of common (i.e. the right to graze 100 sheep), over which area of the common they are exercisable, the name of the person (the 'commoner') who holds those rights, and whether the rights arise by virtue of a separate land ownership by the commoner (i.e. they 'attach' to land).